EP0514188A2 - Encoding/decoding apparatus - Google Patents
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- EP0514188A2 EP0514188A2 EP92304396A EP92304396A EP0514188A2 EP 0514188 A2 EP0514188 A2 EP 0514188A2 EP 92304396 A EP92304396 A EP 92304396A EP 92304396 A EP92304396 A EP 92304396A EP 0514188 A2 EP0514188 A2 EP 0514188A2
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N7/00—Television systems
- H04N7/24—Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation
- H04N7/52—Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal
- H04N7/54—Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal the signals being synchronous
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/102—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
- H04N19/124—Quantisation
- H04N19/126—Details of normalisation or weighting functions, e.g. normalisation matrices or variable uniform quantisers
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- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/134—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
- H04N19/136—Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
- H04N19/14—Coding unit complexity, e.g. amount of activity or edge presence estimation
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/134—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
- H04N19/146—Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
- H04N19/15—Data rate or code amount at the encoder output by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
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- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/169—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding
- H04N19/17—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
- H04N19/176—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being an image region, e.g. an object the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
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- H04N19/44—Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
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- H04N19/48—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using compressed domain processing techniques other than decoding, e.g. modification of transform coefficients, variable length coding [VLC] data or run-length data
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- H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
- H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
- H04N21/236—Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rate; Assembling of a packetised elementary stream
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- H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
- H04N21/434—Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N7/00—Television systems
- H04N7/24—Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation
- H04N7/52—Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal
- H04N7/54—Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal the signals being synchronous
- H04N7/56—Synchronising systems therefor
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- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/102—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
- H04N19/124—Quantisation
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
- H04N19/134—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
- H04N19/146—Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
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- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
- H04N19/65—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using error resilience
Definitions
- the present invention relates to an encoding apparatus for quantizing image information and encoding thus quantized data, and a decoding apparatus for decoding thus encoded data.
- ADCT adaptive discrete cosine transformation
- the DCT encoding is also adopted by the JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) established as an international standard organization for such encoding methods, and the DCT is gaining popularity as the orthogonal transformation suitable for image information.
- JPEG Joint Photographic Expert Group
- the encoding and decoding by DCT are in general conducted in the following manner.
- the transformation of two-dimensional frequency components is executed in a unit block of 8 x 8 pixels, since such transformation in the entire picture requires an excessively long time.
- the DCT is conducted for each block to obtain DCT coefficients in an 8 x 8 matrix, in which the coefficients at the right side, lower side and lower right area respectively signify the high frequency components in the horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions, and the coefficient at the upper left corner indicates the DC component.
- said DCT coefficients are quantized, rougher in the higher frequency side and finer in the lower frequency side, with weighting on the quantizing levels for the DCT coefficients based on the human visual characteristics.
- the encoding is conducted by zigzag scanning between the high and low frequency components.
- the significant coefficients with non-zero quantized outputs are grouped according to their values, and the Huffman encoding is executed on a set of an identification number for said group, an immediately preceding significant coefficient, and a number positioned therebetween and indicating the run length of insignificant coefficients with zero quantized outputs, followed by the addition of a same-length code identifying the value in the group.
- the transmission channel generally has a fixed transmission capacity per unit time, and, if a picture has to be transmitted within a predetermined period as in the case of transmitting the moving image, it is desirable that the obtained code has a fixed number of bits (transfer rate) for a picture or for a unit pixel block.
- control coefficient C which determines the coarseness of quantization.
- control coefficient C is an important parameter, determining the transfer rate of image and also the quality thereof.
- control coefficient C employed in the quantization of the image data is attached, and the inverse quantization is conducted with said control coefficient C at the reproduction of the compressed image data whereby the image is reproduced through a process exactly inverse to that at encoding.
- the information for said control coefficient C for quantization is attached to the image information of each frame.
- Said coefficient information being an extremely important parameter determining the quantization characteristics of the image and thus influencing the image quality, may destruct the quantization properties of an image frame and provide a visually unpleasant image if an error is involved in said information for example in the transmission channel.
- the object of the present invention is to provide an encoding apparatus and a decoding apparatus capable of improving the reliability of image reproduction.
- an encoding apparatus comprising quantization means for quantizing image information; generation means for generating coefficient information for determining the quantizing steps in the quantization means; encoding means for variable length encoding of the data quantized by said quantization means; division means for dividing the image information of a picture into plural blocks; and transmission means for transmitting the obtained codes for each block divided by the division means, with the addition of said coefficient information.
- a decoding apparatus for reproducing image information from a data train, transmitted in the unit of a data frame including a code which is obtained by quantizing image information and encoding thus quantized image data, and coefficient information relating to the quantizing steps determined for each picture, comprising decoding means for decoding the code; detection means for detecting an error in said coefficient information; and replacement means for replacing information in the data frame with that in another data frame, based on the output of the detection means.
- Fig. 1 for explaining the configuration and function of an image encoding apparatus in the image transmission system.
- An analog image signal, entered from an input terminal 1, is subjected to 8-bit digitization by an A/D converter 2.
- the digitized image signal is supplied to a two-dimensional spatial filter (SPF) 3, for eliminating high frequency components that cannot be processed in the DCT (discrete cosine transformation) to be explained later.
- SPF two-dimensional spatial filter
- the digital image signal is supplied to a block dividing circuit 4, divided therein two-dimensionally into pixel blocks each consisting of 8 x 8 pixels, and is supplied to the subsequent process in the unit of the pixel block.
- the image signal from said block dividing circuit 4 is supplied to a DCT circuit 5, which generates an 8 x 8 data matrix indicating the frequency components.
- a pixel block shown in Fig. 4A and consisting of image data D11 - D88 is converted, by the DCT circuit 5, into a data matrix shown in Fig. 4B and consisting of data X11 - X88.
- the coefficient X11 indicates the DC component in the horizontal and vertical directions in the pixel block, or, namely, the average value of this 8 x 8 pixel block.
- the coefficients X11 - X88 or generally represented as X ij , indicate components of higher frequency in the vertical direction for a larger value of i, and components of higher frequency in the horizontal direction for a larger value of j.
- the data matrix generated by the DCT circuit 5 is supplied to a frame memory 6 and a coefficient generation circuit 15.
- a quantization matrix generating circuit 14 generates a quantization matrix W11 - W88 (cf. Fig. 4C) indicating the weights of quantization step sizes for the DCT coefficients X11 - X88, and the coefficient generation circuit 15 generates a control coefficient C to be explained later in more detail.
- the quantization matrix W11 - W88 and the control coefficient C are supplied to a multiplier 16.
- the linear quantization circuit 7 calculates X ij /Q ij to generate outputs G11 - G88.
- the quantized data G11 - G88 are released in succession from the DC component, by means of a zigzag scanning circuit 8.
- VLC variable length encoding circuit
- variable length encoding circuit 9 effects Huffman encoding by calculating a predicted value, for example on the DC component G11, among the nearby pixel blocks and encoding the error to said predicted value.
- the transmission channel generally has a fixed transmission capacity per unit time, and it is desirable that the obtained code has a fixed number of bits per each picture or per each pixel block in case a picture is to be transmitted at every predetermined period as in the case of transmitting a moving image.
- the number of bits is determined by the control coefficient C generated by the coefficient generation circuit 15.
- the relationship between the control coefficient C and the total number of bits NB, though variable depending on the image, is a simplydecreasing function in any case, and is already known to assume the form of a logarithmic curve as shown in Fig. 4D for average images.
- the coefficient C0 for obtaining a desired total number of bits NB0 can be predicted, by effecting the encoding with a coefficient C1, determining the total number of bits NB1 of thus obtained code, and calculating the predicted value of C0 based on NB1 and C1, utilizing a fact that the logarithmic curve shown in Fig. 4D passes through a ponit (C1, NB1).
- the coefficient C0 is predicted in the coefficient generation circuit 15 as will be explained in the following in relation to Fig. 5.
- control coefficients are selected.
- the data compressions are simultaneously executed, respectively with the coefficients, and the total number of bits per frame is calculated for each coefficient.
- the coefficient F0 thus determined and the variable length encoded image signal from the VLC 9 are supplied to a frame multiplexer 10, which attaches the information of the control coefficient F0 to the image signal.
- the format of the transmission signal released from the frame multiplexer 10 is shown in Fig. 3.
- FIG. 3 there are shown vertical synchronization codes 40, 43; control coefficient information 41, 44 of frames, containing the information of the coefficient F0 in the present embodiment; and variable length encoded image information 42, 45.
- the transmission signal from the frame multiplexer 10 is error correction encoded in an error correction encoding (ECC) circuit 11, then modulated in a modulation circuit 12 according to the characteristics of the transmission channel, and is supplied thereto from an output terminal 13.
- ECC error correction encoding
- FIG. 2 for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus of the image transmission system constituting the 1st embodiment.
- the transmission signal (data train) from the transmission channel is entered from an input terminal 16, thus demodulated in a demodulation circuit 18 and supplied to an error correction code (ECC) decoding circuit 19.
- ECC error correction code
- the ECC decoding circuit 19 corrects the code errors in the transmitted data train, according to a predetermined algorithm.
- an error flag released for each error correction code word is set at "1", and the error flag is supplied to a coefficient error discrimination circuit 28.
- the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 discriminates whether the code word with the error flag "1" contains the coefficient information, and, if such coefficient information is contained, sets a coefficient error signal, released for each frame of the image information, at "1". Said coefficient error signal is supplied to an error process circuit 29.
- the transmission signal, subjected to the error correction in said ECC decoding circuit 19, is supplied to a coefficient decoder 20, and is separated therein into the image information and the coefficient information.
- the coefficient information, separated in said coefficient decoder 20, is supplied to the error process circuit 29, which transmits the coefficient information to a multiplier 30 in case the coefficient error signal supplied from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 is not "1".
- the image information separated in the coefficient decoder 20 is supplied to an IVLC 21 for variable length decoding.
- a zigzag scanning circuit 22, a linear inverse quantization circuit 23, an inverse quantization matrix generation circuit 31 and an IDCT (inverse discrete cosine transformation) circuit 24 effect a process exactly inverse to the process executed by the zigzag scanning circuit 8, the linear quantization circuit 7, the quantization matrix generation circuit 14 and the DCT circuit 5 in the encoding apparatus shown in Fig. 1.
- the image information subjected to the above-explained process is buffered in a frame memory 25, then converted into an analog signal in a D/A covnerter 26, and released from an output terminal 27, for supply to image display means such as a monitor unit.
- the error process circuit 29 decodes the image information by replacing the coefficient information, attached to all the frames, with the coefficient information of the current frame.
- the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 supplies the error process circuit 29 with a coefficient error signal "1" for the image information of a frame, corresponding to said coefficient information 44.
- the error process circuit 29 In response to the coefficient error signal "1" from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28, the error process circuit 29 disregards the coefficient information 44, and effects the decoding of the image information 45 by supplying the multiplier 30 with the coefficient information 41 used in the decoding of a preceding frame.
- the configuration and function of the image encoding apparatus are same as those in the 1st embodiment, and will not, therefore, be explained.
- FIG. 6 for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus in the 2nd embodiment.
- components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 2 are represented by same numbers and will not be explained further in the following.
- the functions of the apparatus are same as those in the 1st embodiment, except for the process in case an error is generated in the coefficient information. Such process will be explained in the following.
- the error process circuit 32 sends a freeze signal to the frame memory 33, which in response releases again the image information of the preceding frame.
- the error process circuit 32 send a freeze signal to the frame memory 33, for disregarding the coefficient information 44 and the image information 45 and releasing again the image of the preceding frame, namely the image regenerated from the information 42.
- the frame memory 33 sends the image of the preceding frame again to the D/A converter for output from the output terminal 27.
- Fig. 7 for explaining the configuration and function of an image encoding apparatus, constituting the 3rd embodiment of the image transmission system.
- components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 1 are represented by same numbers and will not be explained further.
- the 3rd embodiment is same as the 1st embodiment, except for the process of attaching the coefficient F0, released from the coefficient generation circuit 15, to the image signal from the VLC 9.
- the coefficient F0 from the coefficient generation circuit 15 and the variable length encoded image signal, from the VLC 9, are supplied to a re-synchronization multiplexer 36, which divides a frame into plural areas and attaches information of the coefficient F0 to the image signal of each of said divided areas.
- re-sync block The divided area will hereinafter be called a re-sync block.
- the relation of re-sync blocks in a frame will be explained in the following, with reference to Fig. 9.
- each DCT block is composed of 8 pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions with a predetermined amount of image data
- a re-sync block is selected as composed of 40 DCT blocks.
- Fig. 10 The format of the transmission signal released from the re-sync multiplexer 36 is shown in Fig. 10. There are shown a vertical synchronization code 50; re-sync codes 31, 34, 37, 40, 43; coefficient information codes 32, 35, 38, 41, 44 for the coefficient F0 released from the coefficient generation circuit 15; and variable length encoded image data 33, 36, 39, 42, 45. Except for the above-explained process, the processes of the 3rd embodiment are same as those of the 1st embodiment.
- FIG. 8 for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus in the 3rd embodiment, wherein components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 2 or 6 are represented by same numbers.
- the transmission signal (data train) from the transmission channel is entered from the input terminal 17, demodulated by the demodulation circuit 18 and supplied to the ECC decoding circuit 19.
- the ECC decoding circuit 19 corrects the code errors in the transmitted data train, according to a predetermined algorithm.
- an error flag released for each error correction code word is set at "1", and the error flag is supplied to a re-sync block error discrimination circuit 34.
- the re-sync error discrimination circuit 34 discriminates a block containing said coefficient information, of which code words has said error flag "1", and, if such block containing the coefficient information is present, sets a re-sync block error signal, released for each re-sync block of the image information, at "1".
- the re-sync block error signal is supplied to a coefficient selector 35.
- the transmission signal subjected to the error correction in said ECC decoding circuit 19, is supplied to the coefficient decoder 20, and is separated therein into the image information signal and the coefficient information signal.
- the coefficient information, separated in said coefficient decoder 20, is supplied to the coefficient selector 35, which transmits said coefficient information to the multiplier 30 in case the re-sync block error signal "1" is not supplied from the re-sync block error discrimination circuit 34.
- the image information separated in the coefficient decoder 20 is supplied to the IVLC 21 for variable length decoding.
- the zigzag scanning circuit 22, the linear inverse quantization circuit 23, the inverse quantization matrix generation circuit 31 and the IDCT (inverse discrete cosine transformation) circuit 24 effect a process exactly inverse to the process executed by the zigzag scanning circuit 8, the linear quantization circuit 7, the quantization matrix generation circuit 14 and the DCT circuit 5 in the encoding apparatus shown in Fig. 1.
- the image information subjected to the above-explained process is buffered in the frame memory 25, then converted into an analog signal in the D/A converter 26, and released from the output terminal 27, for supply to image display means such as a monitor unit.
- the selector 35 disregards the coefficient information signal attached to the incorrectible re-sync block, and replaces the information signal with coefficient information attached to a re-sync block preceding or succeeding to the incorrectible re-sync block.
- the coefficient selector 35 is provided therein with a re-sync block counter, and sends a freeze signal to the frame memory 33 in case the number of error re-sync blocks within a frame exceeds a certain threshold value, and, in response the frame memory 33 does not release the image information of the current frame but that of a preceding or succeeding frame, thereby replacing the image information of the current frame.
- the error flag is set at "1" for a code word containing an incorrectible error.
- the error flag is supplied to the re-sync block error discrimination circuit 34, which discriminates whether the code word with the error flag "1" contains the coefficient information.
- a re-sync block error signal "1" is entered into the coefficient selector 35.
- the coefficient selector 35 In response to said re-sync block error signal, the coefficient selector 35 disregards the coefficient information 58, 61 in the section 1, and supplies the multiplier 30 with the coefficient information attached to the preceding re-sync block, for example the coefficient information 55.
- the coefficient selector 35 is provided with a re-sync block error counter, and, in case the number of error re-sync blocks exceeds a certain threshold value, the image of the frame is considered unreliable and is replaced by the image of the preceding frame.
- the threshold value is selected as two.
- the coefficient selector 35 sends a freeze signal to the frame memory 33, thereby freezing the image of the preceding frame.
- the image signal encoding apparatus and the decoding apparatus of the present invention if an error is generated, for example on the transmission channel, in the control coefficient information which is an extremely important parameter affecting the image quality, the image reproduction is conducted by disregarding such coefficient information involving error and replacing it with effective coefficient information. It is therefore rendered possible to minimize the influence of the error in the coefficient information, and to improve the reliability of image reproduction.
- the coefficient information or the image information is replaced by the previously processed information, but it may naturally be replaced by the subsequent coefficient or image information.
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Abstract
Description
- The present invention relates to an encoding apparatus for quantizing image information and encoding thus quantized data, and a decoding apparatus for decoding thus encoded data.
- For the purpose of encoding color image signal, the ADCT (adaptive discrete cosine transformation) encoding is gaining popularity in recent years. This method is based on encoding by decomposing the image into its spatial frequency components, and is one of orthogonal transformation encoding methods.
- The DCT encoding is also adopted by the JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) established as an international standard organization for such encoding methods, and the DCT is gaining popularity as the orthogonal transformation suitable for image information.
- The encoding and decoding by DCT are in general conducted in the following manner.
- The transformation of two-dimensional frequency components is executed in a unit block of 8 x 8 pixels, since such transformation in the entire picture requires an excessively long time.
- The DCT is conducted for each block to obtain DCT coefficients in an 8 x 8 matrix, in which the coefficients at the right side, lower side and lower right area respectively signify the high frequency components in the horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions, and the coefficient at the upper left corner indicates the DC component.
- Then said DCT coefficients are quantized, rougher in the higher frequency side and finer in the lower frequency side, with weighting on the quantizing levels for the DCT coefficients based on the human visual characteristics.
- Then thus quantized DCT coefficients are encoded. Since the components are concentrated in the lower frequency side, the encoding is conducted by zigzag scanning between the high and low frequency components. The significant coefficients with non-zero quantized outputs are grouped according to their values, and the Huffman encoding is executed on a set of an identification number for said group, an immediately preceding significant coefficient, and a number positioned therebetween and indicating the run length of insignificant coefficients with zero quantized outputs, followed by the addition of a same-length code identifying the value in the group.
- Since the diagonal high frequency components have generally low probability in the images, the latter portion after zigzag scanning is expected to become all zero in most cases. Consequently, a very high compression rate can be expected in the variable length code obtained in this manner, and an image reproduction with scarce deterioration in image quality can be achieved if a compression rate of several to one is anticipated in average.
- However, the transmission channel generally has a fixed transmission capacity per unit time, and, if a picture has to be transmitted within a predetermined period as in the case of transmitting the moving image, it is desirable that the obtained code has a fixed number of bits (transfer rate) for a picture or for a unit pixel block.
- The number of bits per picture is determined by the control coefficient C, which determines the coarseness of quantization. Thus, the control coefficient C is an important parameter, determining the transfer rate of image and also the quality thereof.
- Various methods have been proposed for determining said control coefficient C.
- For each frame of image data compressed as explained above, the control coefficient C employed in the quantization of the image data is attached, and the inverse quantization is conducted with said control coefficient C at the reproduction of the compressed image data whereby the image is reproduced through a process exactly inverse to that at encoding.
- Thus, in the conventional art, the information for said control coefficient C for quantization is attached to the image information of each frame.
- Said coefficient information, being an extremely important parameter determining the quantization characteristics of the image and thus influencing the image quality, may destruct the quantization properties of an image frame and provide a visually unpleasant image if an error is involved in said information for example in the transmission channel.
- In consideration of the foregoing, the object of the present invention is to provide an encoding apparatus and a decoding apparatus capable of improving the reliability of image reproduction.
- According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an encoding apparatus comprising quantization means for quantizing image information; generation means for generating coefficient information for determining the quantizing steps in the quantization means; encoding means for variable length encoding of the data quantized by said quantization means; division means for dividing the image information of a picture into plural blocks; and transmission means for transmitting the obtained codes for each block divided by the division means, with the addition of said coefficient information.
- Also according to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a decoding apparatus for reproducing image information from a data train, transmitted in the unit of a data frame including a code which is obtained by quantizing image information and encoding thus quantized image data, and coefficient information relating to the quantizing steps determined for each picture, comprising decoding means for decoding the code; detection means for detecting an error in said coefficient information; and replacement means for replacing information in the data frame with that in another data frame, based on the output of the detection means.
- Other objects of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, will become fully apparent from the following detailed description which is to be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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- Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an image encoding apparatus constituting a first embodiment of the present invention;
- Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an image decoding apparatus constituting a first embodiment of the present invention;
- Fig. 3 is a view showing the format of transmitted signal in the 1st and 2nd embodiments of the present invention;
- Figs. 4A to 4D are views showing the encoding process in the embodiments of the present invention;
- Fig. 5 is a chart showing the method of setting the control coefficient for determining the image transfer rate in the embodiments of the present invention;
- Fig. 6 is a block diagram of an image decoding apparatus constituting a 2nd embodiment of the present invention;
- Fig. 7 is a block diagram of an image encoding apparatus constituting a 3rd embodiment of the present invention;
- Fig. 8 is a block diagram of an image decoding apparatus constituting a 3rd embodiment of the present invneiton;
- Fig. 9 is a view showing the structure of a frame in the 3rd embodiment of the present invention; and
- Fig. 10 is a view showing the format of transmitted signal in the 3rd embodiment of the present invention.
- In the following there will be explained an image transmission system, constituting a 1st embodiment of the present invention, with reference to Figs. 1 to 5.
- At first reference is made to Fig. 1, for explaining the configuration and function of an image encoding apparatus in the image transmission system.
- An analog image signal, entered from an
input terminal 1, is subjected to 8-bit digitization by an A/D converter 2. - The digitized image signal is supplied to a two-dimensional spatial filter (SPF) 3, for eliminating high frequency components that cannot be processed in the DCT (discrete cosine transformation) to be explained later. Thus the
filter 3 alleviates the visual block distortion. - Subsequently the digital image signal is supplied to a block dividing
circuit 4, divided therein two-dimensionally into pixel blocks each consisting of 8 x 8 pixels, and is supplied to the subsequent process in the unit of the pixel block. - The image signal from said block dividing
circuit 4 is supplied to aDCT circuit 5, which generates an 8 x 8 data matrix indicating the frequency components. - More specifically, a pixel block shown in Fig. 4A and consisting of image data D₁₁ - D₈₈ is converted, by the
DCT circuit 5, into a data matrix shown in Fig. 4B and consisting of data X₁₁ - X₈₈. - The coefficient X₁₁ indicates the DC component in the horizontal and vertical directions in the pixel block, or, namely, the average value of this 8 x 8 pixel block.
- The coefficients X₁₁ - X₈₈, or generally represented as Xij, indicate components of higher frequency in the vertical direction for a larger value of i, and components of higher frequency in the horizontal direction for a larger value of j.
- The data matrix generated by the
DCT circuit 5 is supplied to aframe memory 6 and a coefficient generation circuit 15. - A quantization
matrix generating circuit 14 generates a quantization matrix W₁₁ - W₈₈ (cf. Fig. 4C) indicating the weights of quantization step sizes for the DCT coefficients X₁₁ - X₈₈, and the coefficient generation circuit 15 generates a control coefficient C to be explained later in more detail. - The quantization matrix W₁₁ - W₈₈ and the control coefficient C are supplied to a multiplier 16.
- The multiplier 16 effects calculations Wij x C = Qij, and the outputs Q₁₁ - Q₈₈ are supplied to a
linear quantization circuit 7 for determinig the quantization steps thereof. - The
linear quantization circuit 7 calculates Xij/Qij to generate outputs G₁₁ - G₈₈. The quantized data G₁₁ - G₈₈ are released in succession from the DC component, by means of azigzag scanning circuit 8. - More specifically said
zigzag scanning circuit 8 sends said outputs in the order of G₁₁, G₁₂, G₂₁, G₃₁, G₂₂, G₁₃, G₁₄, G₂₃, G₃₂, G₄₁, ..., G₈₅, G₈₆, G₇₇, G₆₈, G₇₈, G₈₇ and G₈₈ to a variable length encoding circuit (VLC) 9. - The variable
length encoding circuit 9 effects Huffman encoding by calculating a predicted value, for example on the DC component G₁₁, among the nearby pixel blocks and encoding the error to said predicted value. - However, the transmission channel generally has a fixed transmission capacity per unit time, and it is desirable that the obtained code has a fixed number of bits per each picture or per each pixel block in case a picture is to be transmitted at every predetermined period as in the case of transmitting a moving image.
- The number of bits is determined by the control coefficient C generated by the coefficient generation circuit 15.
- More specifically, if the control coefficient C is selected larger, the probability of Gij = 0 becomes larger, so that the total number of bits NB (transfer rate) of the encoded data decreases. The relationship between the control coefficient C and the total number of bits NB, though variable depending on the image, is a simplydecreasing function in any case, and is already known to assume the form of a logarithmic curve as shown in Fig. 4D for average images.
- Therefore, the coefficient C₀ for obtaining a desired total number of bits NB₀ can be predicted, by effecting the encoding with a coefficient C₁, determining the total number of bits NB₁ of thus obtained code, and calculating the predicted value of C₀ based on NB₁ and C₁, utilizing a fact that the logarithmic curve shown in Fig. 4D passes through a ponit (C₁, NB₁).
- In the present embodiment, the coefficient C₀ is predicted in the coefficient generation circuit 15 as will be explained in the following in relation to Fig. 5.
- At first certain control coefficients are selected. The data compressions are simultaneously executed, respectively with the coefficients, and the total number of bits per frame is calculated for each coefficient.
- Then a range of coefficients providing the desired total number of bits is looked for (C₂ and C₃ in case of Fig. 5), and the coefficient C₀ providing the desired total number of bits is determined by linear approximation from the two points of said range.
- Though the coefficient F₀ determined in this manner is somewhat different from the true coefficient C₀, but is optimum in that the obtained number of bits never exceeds the desired number of bits since the logarithmic curve is convex downwards.
- The coefficient F₀ thus determined and the variable length encoded image signal from the
VLC 9 are supplied to a frame multiplexer 10, which attaches the information of the control coefficient F₀ to the image signal. - The format of the transmission signal released from the frame multiplexer 10 is shown in Fig. 3.
- In Fig. 3 there are shown
vertical synchronization codes 40, 43; control coefficient information 41, 44 of frames, containing the information of the coefficient F₀ in the present embodiment; and variable length encoded image information 42, 45. - The transmission signal from the frame multiplexer 10 is error correction encoded in an error correction encoding (ECC) circuit 11, then modulated in a
modulation circuit 12 according to the characteristics of the transmission channel, and is supplied thereto from anoutput terminal 13. - Now reference is made to Fig. 2, for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus of the image transmission system constituting the 1st embodiment.
- The transmission signal (data train) from the transmission channel is entered from an input terminal 16, thus demodulated in a demodulation circuit 18 and supplied to an error correction code (ECC) decoding
circuit 19. - The
ECC decoding circuit 19 corrects the code errors in the transmitted data train, according to a predetermined algorithm. - Also in case there are generated data for which the error correction is identified impossible, an error flag released for each error correction code word is set at "1", and the error flag is supplied to a coefficient error discrimination circuit 28.
- The coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 discriminates whether the code word with the error flag "1" contains the coefficient information, and, if such coefficient information is contained, sets a coefficient error signal, released for each frame of the image information, at "1". Said coefficient error signal is supplied to an
error process circuit 29. - The transmission signal, subjected to the error correction in said
ECC decoding circuit 19, is supplied to acoefficient decoder 20, and is separated therein into the image information and the coefficient information. - The coefficient information, separated in said
coefficient decoder 20, is supplied to theerror process circuit 29, which transmits the coefficient information to amultiplier 30 in case the coefficient error signal supplied from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 is not "1". - The image information separated in the
coefficient decoder 20 is supplied to an IVLC 21 for variable length decoding. Azigzag scanning circuit 22, a linearinverse quantization circuit 23, an inverse quantization matrix generation circuit 31 and an IDCT (inverse discrete cosine transformation)circuit 24 effect a process exactly inverse to the process executed by thezigzag scanning circuit 8, thelinear quantization circuit 7, the quantizationmatrix generation circuit 14 and theDCT circuit 5 in the encoding apparatus shown in Fig. 1. - The image information subjected to the above-explained process is buffered in a
frame memory 25, then converted into an analog signal in a D/A covnerter 26, and released from anoutput terminal 27, for supply to image display means such as a monitor unit. - On the other hand, in case said coefficient error signal, supplied from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 to the
error process circuit 29, is "1", theerror process circuit 29 decodes the image information by replacing the coefficient information, attached to all the frames, with the coefficient information of the current frame. - In the following there will be explained, with reference to Fig. 3, the process in case the coefficient information contains an error.
- It is assumed that an error is generated in the transmission signal shown in Fig. 3 on the transmission channel and that the
ECC decoding circuit 19 shown in Fig. 2 sets the error flag as "1" in asection 1 shown in Fig. 3. The error flag is set at "1" for a code word for which the error correction is not possible, and the error flag is supplied to the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28, which discriminates whether the code word with the error flag "1" contains the coefficient information. - Since the
section 1 contains the coefficient information 44, the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 supplies theerror process circuit 29 with a coefficient error signal "1" for the image information of a frame, corresponding to said coefficient information 44. - In response to the coefficient error signal "1" from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28, the
error process circuit 29 disregards the coefficient information 44, and effects the decoding of the image information 45 by supplying themultiplier 30 with the coefficient information 41 used in the decoding of a preceding frame. - In the following there will be given a detailed explanation on a second embodiment of the image transmission system.
- In the second embodiment, the configuration and function of the image encoding apparatus are same as those in the 1st embodiment, and will not, therefore, be explained.
- Now reference is made to Fig. 6 for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus in the 2nd embodiment. In Fig. 6, components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 2 are represented by same numbers and will not be explained further in the following. Also the functions of the apparatus are same as those in the 1st embodiment, except for the process in case an error is generated in the coefficient information. Such process will be explained in the following.
- In case the coefficient error signal, supplied from the coefficient error discrimination circuit 28 to an
error process circuit 32, is "1", the image of the preceding frame is frozen. - More specifically, the
error process circuit 32 sends a freeze signal to theframe memory 33, which in response releases again the image information of the preceding frame. - More specifically, with reference to Fig. 3, in case the coefficient error signal is "1", the
error process circuit 32 send a freeze signal to theframe memory 33, for disregarding the coefficient information 44 and the image information 45 and releasing again the image of the preceding frame, namely the image regenerated from the information 42. - In response the
frame memory 33 sends the image of the preceding frame again to the D/A converter for output from theoutput terminal 27. - In the following there will be given a detailed explanation on a 3rd embodiment of the image transmission system of the present invention, with reference to Figs. 7 to 10.
- At first reference is made to Fig. 7 for explaining the configuration and function of an image encoding apparatus, constituting the 3rd embodiment of the image transmission system. In Fig. 7, components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 1 are represented by same numbers and will not be explained further.
- The 3rd embodiment is same as the 1st embodiment, except for the process of attaching the coefficient F₀, released from the coefficient generation circuit 15, to the image signal from the
VLC 9. - Said attaching of the coefficient F₀ to the image signal is conducted in the following manner.
- The coefficient F₀ from the coefficient generation circuit 15 and the variable length encoded image signal, from the
VLC 9, are supplied to a re-synchronization multiplexer 36, which divides a frame into plural areas and attaches information of the coefficient F₀ to the image signal of each of said divided areas. - The divided area will hereinafter be called a re-sync block. The relation of re-sync blocks in a frame will be explained in the following, with reference to Fig. 9.
-
- Since each DCT block is composed of 8 pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions with a predetermined amount of image data, a re-sync block is selected as composed of 40 DCT blocks.
- Consequently a picture is composed of 544 re-sync blocks, which are arranged 4 in the horizontal direction and 136 in the vertical direction.
-
- The format of the transmission signal released from the re-sync multiplexer 36 is shown in Fig. 10. There are shown a vertical synchronization code 50;
re-sync codes coefficient information codes image data 33, 36, 39, 42, 45. Except for the above-explained process, the processes of the 3rd embodiment are same as those of the 1st embodiment. - Now reference is made to Fig. 8 for explaining the configuration and function of an image decoding apparatus in the 3rd embodiment, wherein components same as or equivalent to those in Fig. 2 or 6 are represented by same numbers.
- The transmission signal (data train) from the transmission channel is entered from the
input terminal 17, demodulated by the demodulation circuit 18 and supplied to theECC decoding circuit 19. - The
ECC decoding circuit 19 corrects the code errors in the transmitted data train, according to a predetermined algorithm. - In case there are generated data for which the error correction is identified impossible, an error flag released for each error correction code word is set at "1", and the error flag is supplied to a re-sync block
error discrimination circuit 34. - The re-sync
error discrimination circuit 34 discriminates a block containing said coefficient information, of which code words has said error flag "1", and, if such block containing the coefficient information is present, sets a re-sync block error signal, released for each re-sync block of the image information, at "1". The re-sync block error signal is supplied to a coefficient selector 35. - The transmission signal, subjected to the error correction in said
ECC decoding circuit 19, is supplied to thecoefficient decoder 20, and is separated therein into the image information signal and the coefficient information signal. - The coefficient information, separated in said
coefficient decoder 20, is supplied to the coefficient selector 35, which transmits said coefficient information to themultiplier 30 in case the re-sync block error signal "1" is not supplied from the re-sync blockerror discrimination circuit 34. - The image information separated in the
coefficient decoder 20 is supplied to theIVLC 21 for variable length decoding. Thezigzag scanning circuit 22, the linearinverse quantization circuit 23, the inverse quantization matrix generation circuit 31 and the IDCT (inverse discrete cosine transformation)circuit 24 effect a process exactly inverse to the process executed by thezigzag scanning circuit 8, thelinear quantization circuit 7, the quantizationmatrix generation circuit 14 and theDCT circuit 5 in the encoding apparatus shown in Fig. 1. - The image information subjected to the above-explained process is buffered in the
frame memory 25, then converted into an analog signal in the D/A converter 26, and released from theoutput terminal 27, for supply to image display means such as a monitor unit. - On the other hand, in case the re-sync block error signal "1" is supplied to the coefficient selector 35, the selector 35 disregards the coefficient information signal attached to the incorrectible re-sync block, and replaces the information signal with coefficient information attached to a re-sync block preceding or succeeding to the incorrectible re-sync block.
- Also in case a frame contains three or more incorrectible re-sync blocks, the frame currently processed is disregarded, and preceding or succeeding frame is frozen.
- More specifically, the coefficient selector 35 is provided therein with a re-sync block counter, and sends a freeze signal to the
frame memory 33 in case the number of error re-sync blocks within a frame exceeds a certain threshold value, and, in response theframe memory 33 does not release the image information of the current frame but that of a preceding or succeeding frame, thereby replacing the image information of the current frame. - Now reference is made to Fig. 10 for explaining the process in case the coefficient information, attached to each re-sync block, contains an error.
- It is assumed that an error is generated, on the transmission channel, in the transmission signal shown in Fig. 10, whereby the
ECC decoding circuit 19 shown in Fig. 8 sets the error flag at "1" in asection 1 shown in Fig. 10. - The error flag is set at "1" for a code word containing an incorrectible error. The error flag is supplied to the re-sync block
error discrimination circuit 34, which discriminates whether the code word with the error flag "1" contains the coefficient information. - In the
section 1, for the image information of the re-sync block corresponding to the coefficient information 58 and 61, a re-sync block error signal "1" is entered into the coefficient selector 35. - In response to said re-sync block error signal, the coefficient selector 35 disregards the coefficient information 58, 61 in the
section 1, and supplies themultiplier 30 with the coefficient information attached to the preceding re-sync block, for example the coefficient information 55. - Also as explained above, the coefficient selector 35 is provided with a re-sync block error counter, and, in case the number of error re-sync blocks exceeds a certain threshold value, the image of the frame is considered unreliable and is replaced by the image of the preceding frame. In the present embodiment, the threshold value is selected as two.
- More specifically with reference to Fig. 10, if an error flag is set in the
section 2, the number of error re-sync block is considered as three, since thesection 2 contains the coefficient information 54, 57, 61. Thus the coefficient selector 35 sends a freeze signal to theframe memory 33, thereby freezing the image of the preceding frame. - As explained detailedly in the foregoing, in the image signal encoding apparatus and the decoding apparatus of the present invention, if an error is generated, for example on the transmission channel, in the control coefficient information which is an extremely important parameter affecting the image quality, the image reproduction is conducted by disregarding such coefficient information involving error and replacing it with effective coefficient information. It is therefore rendered possible to minimize the influence of the error in the coefficient information, and to improve the reliability of image reproduction.
- Also the present invention is subject to various modifications within the scope and spirit thereof.
- For example, in the foregoing embodiments, the coefficient information or the image information is replaced by the previously processed information, but it may naturally be replaced by the subsequent coefficient or image information.
- In other words, the foregoing description of embodiments has been given for illustrative purposes only and not to be construed as imposing any limitation in every respect.
- The scope of the invention is, therefore, to be determined solely by the following claims and not limited by the text of the specifications and alterations made within a scope equivalent to the scope of the claims fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Claims (30)
- An encoding apparatus comprising:a) quantization means for quantizing image information;b) generation means for generating coefficient information for determining quantization steps of said quantization means;c) encoding means for variable length encoding of the data quantized by said quantization means;d) division means for dividing the image information of a picture into plural blocks; ande) transmission means for effecting transmission by attaching said coefficient information to each of the blocks divided by said division means.
- An apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said image information is data subjected to discrete cosine transformation (DCT).
- An apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said coefficient information is determined for each picture.
- An apparatus according to Claim 3, wherein said block is formed by plural DCT blocks.
- An apparatus according to Claim 4, wherein said block is a variable length re-synchronization block.
- A decoding apparatus for regenerating image information from a data train transmitted in the unit of a data frame containing a code, obtained by quantizing said image information and encoding thus quantized image data, and coefficient information relating to the steps of said quantization and determined for each picture, comprising:a) decoding means for decoding said code;b) detection means for detecting an error in said coefficient information; andc) replacement means for replacing information in said data frame with information of another data frame, based on the output of said detection means.
- An apparatus according to Claim 6, wherein said image information is data converted into frequency components.
- An apparatus according to Claim 6, wherein said data frame contains image information of a picture and coefficient information determined for each picture.
- An apparatus according to Claim 6, wherein a picture is composed of a plurality of said data frames.
- A decoding apparatus for reproducing image information from a data train transmitted in the unit of a data frame containing codes of a picture, said code being obtained by converting said image information into frequency components, quantizing thus converted data and variable length encoding said quantized data, and coefficient information relating to the quantizing steps of said codes of a picture, comprising:a) decoding means for decoding said codes;b) detection means for detecting the error in said coefficient information; andc) replacement means for replacing the information in said data frame with information of a data frame in another picture.
- An apparatus according to Claim 10, wherein said data frame contains image information of a picture and coefficient information determined in the unit of a picture.
- A decoding apparatus for variable length decoding of variable length encoded data, obtained by quantizing image information, variable length encoding said quantized data and attaching coefficient information relating to the steps of said quantization to the encoded data of each of plural blocks divided in a picture, comprising:a) detection means for detecting error in said coefficient information in each of said blocks; andb) replacement means for replacing the coefficient information of a block in which an error is detected by said detection means, with the coefficient information of another block.
- An apparatus according to Claim 12, wherein said image information is data converted into frequency components.
- An apparatus according to Claim 13, wherein said coefficient information is determined in the unit of a picture.
- An apparatus according to Claim 14, wherein said replacement means is adapted to replace with another block in a same picture.
- An apparatus according to Claim 15, wherein said replacement means is adapted, in case the number of blocks detected by said detection means exceeds a predetermined number within a frame, to replace said frame with another frame.
- An encoding apparatus comprising:a) discrete cosine transformation (DCT) means for effecting DCT on an input signal;b) quantizing means for quantizing said discrete cosine converted signal;c) generation means for generating a control coefficient for controlling the quantizing value of said quantizing means, for every plural number of DCT blocks;d) encoding means for effecting variable length encoding on the signal quantized by said quantizing means; ande) attaching means for attaching a plurality of said control coefficient in said plural DCT blocks.
- A decoding apparatus for decoding a signal encoded with an encoding apparatus provided with first orthogonal transformation means for effecting orthogonal transformation on an input signal, quantization means for quantizing said orthogonally transformed signal, generation means for generating a control coefficient for controlling the quantizing value of said quantization means, encoding means for variable length encoding of the signal quantized by said quantization means, and transmission means for transmitting said encoded signal with addition of said control coefficient, comprising:a) decoding means for obtaining a decoded signal by decoding said encoded signal;b) separation means for separating said control coefficient employed in the quantization, from said encoded signal;c) detection means for detecting an error in said separated control coefficient;d) generation means for generating another control coefficient different from said control coefficient, according to the output of said detection means;e) inverse quantization means for inverse quantization of said decoded signal, according to the control coefficient generated from said generation means; andf) second orthogonal transformation means for effecting an orthogonal transformation, which is an inverse transformation of the first orthogonal transformation, on the signal inversely quantized by said inverse quantization means.
- An apparatus according to Claim 18, wherein said first orthogonal transformation means is adapted to effect discrete cosine transformation.
- An apparatus according to Claim 19, wherein said control coefficient is attached to each re-synchronization block composed of plural DCT blocks.
- A picture coding circuit which comprises an adaptive quantizer, further comprising means for transmitting quantizer coefficient data in error encoded form.
- A picture decoder circuit comprising an inverse quantizer controllable in accordance with received quantizer coefficient data, further comprising means for detecting an error in received quantizer coefficient data and means for performing corrective action to compensate the loss of the data.
- A decoder according to claim 22 which is arranged, in the case of a detected error, to employ quantizer coefficient data relating to other picture data.
- A decoder circuit according to claim 23 wherein the other picture data comprises data from a preceding picture.
- A decoder circuit according to claim 23 wherein the other data comprises data relating to another portion of the same picture.
- A decoding circuit according to claim 22 arranged, on detection of a quantizing coefficient error, to employ previous picture data rather than decoding the present picture data.
- An image encoder comprising means for dividing an image into image portions, and means for encoding said image portions employing an adaptive quantizer, the whole image being encoded using the same quantizer characteristic, the image encoder being arranged to transmit quantizer characteristic coefficient data a plurality of times for the same image.
- A decoder circuit which comprises a quantizer controllable in accordance with received quantizer coefficient data, arranged to receive a plurality of quantizer coefficient data within each frame for decoding corresponding portions of the plane image, and if one of said coefficient data is erroneous, to use another of that frame of decode the portion for which the first would have been used.
- An image coding method employing the technical features of any preceding claim.
- An image transmission system comprising in combination image coding apparatus according to the preceding encoding apparatus claims, image decoding apparatus according to the preceding image decoding apparatus claims and an image transmission channel connecting the two.
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JP11319091A JP3192436B2 (en) | 1991-05-17 | 1991-05-17 | Image decoding apparatus and method |
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- 1992-05-15 DE DE69231825T patent/DE69231825T2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1992-05-15 EP EP99200142A patent/EP0917373B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
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EP0553361A1 (en) * | 1991-08-21 | 1993-08-04 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Image data compression apparatus |
EP0553361A4 (en) * | 1991-08-21 | 1994-01-05 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | |
US5420872A (en) * | 1991-12-04 | 1995-05-30 | Sharp K.K. | Apparatus for concealing error in transform coding of a motion picture |
EP0545711A3 (en) * | 1991-12-04 | 1994-01-05 | Sharp Kk | |
EP0545711A2 (en) * | 1991-12-04 | 1993-06-09 | Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha | Apparatus for concealing error of moving pictures transform coding |
EP0588586A2 (en) * | 1992-09-14 | 1994-03-23 | Sony Corporation | Apparatus and method for decoding a plurality of encoded video signals |
US5534928A (en) * | 1992-09-14 | 1996-07-09 | Sony Corporation | Apparatus and method for decoding a plurality of encoded video signals |
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US5532837A (en) * | 1992-12-18 | 1996-07-02 | Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. | Digital video signal processing apparatus |
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US5617333A (en) * | 1993-11-29 | 1997-04-01 | Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd. | Method and apparatus for transmission of image data |
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KR100545065B1 (en) * | 1997-03-26 | 2006-04-21 | 마츠시타 덴끼 산교 가부시키가이샤 | Image decoding apparatus |
WO1999004553A2 (en) * | 1997-07-18 | 1999-01-28 | Nokia Mobile Phones Limited | Image compression |
WO1999004553A3 (en) * | 1997-07-18 | 1999-04-08 | Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd | Image compression |
US6118903A (en) * | 1997-07-18 | 2000-09-12 | Nokia Mobile Phones, Ltd. | Image compression method and apparatus which satisfies a predefined bit budget |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
DE69231825T2 (en) | 2001-10-31 |
EP0917373A2 (en) | 1999-05-19 |
EP0917373A3 (en) | 1999-05-24 |
DE69233318D1 (en) | 2004-04-08 |
EP0514188A3 (en) | 1993-09-01 |
US5657399A (en) | 1997-08-12 |
DE69231825D1 (en) | 2001-06-21 |
EP0514188B1 (en) | 2001-05-16 |
EP0917373B1 (en) | 2004-03-03 |
DE69233318T2 (en) | 2005-02-17 |
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